New hierarchies in death

SRINAGAR, JAMMU AND KASHMIR:

POSHA Begum's grief is palpable. Slim and vulnerable, she is obsessively concerned about the life growing inside her - her first child. She married Rifleman Nazir Ahmed Khan in 1995 and last saw him in March 1999, when he was home on leave. He died in Kargil on June 15.

Her troubles began the day his body was brought home on June 19. The next day her mother-in-law turned her out of the house, dreading the idea of supporting both mother and child when she already had an ailing husband to take care of, three sons to feed and a daughter to marry.

But that was before a neighbour, Retd. Capt. Hafizullah Khan, dramatically stepped in and said, "If Nazir could give his life for the country, I will lay down my life for Posha. I will not let her leave this house."

Soon the family realised that Posha was entitled to a sizeable compensation. Now she is being coerced to marry her brother-in- law who is seven years her junior, and unemployed. He hopes to control her assets. Posha is resigned to the match, but she has one major worry: "How long will I remain his only wife. After all, he is barely 20".

In Satpora, a neighbouring village, lives another war widow, Shah Begum, who has three children, and infirm in-laws to look after. She received the mangled remains of her husband, Naik Dost Mohammad of 2 J & K LI (Light Infantry), on June 30. "But my eyes continue to remain on the road, awaiting his arrival," she says. She last saw him in August 1998.

Having been married 15 years, Shah Begum is in control of her life and, though illiterate, she is definite about what she wants. She intends moving to Kupwara to facilitate her children's education. And she is demanding a job from the State Government. "Everyone in the family and the village has been nice to me and my children, but now this sympathy is turning to envy. I foresee a very lonely future," she says.

Fareeda Kosar of Kokra village in Rajouri District is in a strange situation. Her husband, Rifleman Muzhir Hussain, was killed in Kargil. Young and illiterate, she does not know how to fend off predators within the family. As "next of kin", she is entitled to all the ex-gratia benefits of the Central Government and various other grants.

The Rs. 500,000 grant given by the State, has to be divided equally between her, the children and old parents of Muzir, in accordance with the Shariat.

Dissatisfied, Fareeda's father-in-law, filed a case against the J&K Light Infantry Regimental Centre, demanding that the Shariat be applied to the complete entitlement grant. However, he did make a concession - he would withdraw the case if Fareeda married him.

While no monetary grants can ever compensate for the loss of the lives of soldiers killed in action, the Government has moved toward a realistic plan of providing some material security for the widows and the children of soldiers. There is an attempt to extend substantial grants to the "next of kin" that will provide some security for the rest of their lives.

But this move has a negative fallout too - the growing incidence of rifts within families over the large amounts of money received as compensation. Most of the Regimental Centres have addressed this problem by putting the amount in joint fixed deposits with the Centre Commandant and by keeping in constant touch with the family.

The recent Kargil conflict has attracted donations unlike any previous war or conflict situation. The result was an enhanced ex-gratia compensation scheme. The families of the victims of Operation Vijay are entitled to a one-time grant of Rs. one million, along with Rs. 500,000 for a dwelling unit and Rs. 100,000 each for a maximum of two children from the Central Government.

Apart from this, various state governments have promised amounts ranging from Rs. 100,000 to Rs. one million: Rajasthan has promised Rs. 100,000 along with land; Tripura, Karnataka and Orissa have pledged Rs. 200,000 each; Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Nagaland and Jammu and Kashmir have fixed a sum of Rs. 500,000 each; Delhi has promised Rs. 700,000; Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana have fixed a sum of Rs. 1 million each (in the last case, the sum is to be equally divided between the widow and her parents-in-law).

In case of a disability suffered in combat, the Central Government gives a compensation of Rs. 600,000. The State Governments too have a graded system of compensation, according to the nature of the disability suffered.

All these grants are specific to "Operation Vijay" and are not being extended, so far, to those killed or disabled in "Operation Rakshak" in the Valley or "Operation Rhino" in the North-East.

The disparities are glaring, for the entitlements of those who continue to be killed along the Line of Control in J and K, in the counter insurgency operations in the north-east, are woefully inadequate to provide for their families. They also do not recognise the need to compensate the disabled. The Central Government gives a one time grant of Rs. 750,000 and no other benefits to those killed in action.

These disparities are illogical and undermine the professional ethics of the fighting forces. Earlier, if a war widow remarried, her entitlement of pension at the rate of last pay drawn by her husband, was withdrawn. Now, primarily due to the relentless efforts of Dr. Ranjana Malik, president of the Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA), this benefit has come to stay with the widow, even after remarriage. This measure is not specific to the Kargil operation like all the other enhanced benefits.

Violent injury and death have become an everyday reality for the Indian army with the dramatic increase in the number of conflict zones. Soon, the government will have to seriously tackle the issue of creating hierarchies of death that will have a deleterious effect on the morale of the armed forces.

PAMELA BHAGAT

Women's Feature Service

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